


The Child In Red

by JustAHumanMachine



Category: Original Work
Genre: Because it’s hell, Demons, Gen, Hell, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, It’s not a major part of the story but it’s there, Murder, No one is having a good time, Part of a challenge, Someone killed Satan and took over Hell in this, Tad bit unconventional depiction of demons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25822726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAHumanMachine/pseuds/JustAHumanMachine
Summary: (Another repost from amino, part of another challenge.)The child in red sits in a circle of hellfire, crying, calling for her mother. The demons watch, seeing another odd soul like them.She is not being punished. She is the punishment.





	The Child In Red

Quick warning: This story contains references to murder, sexual assault, and suicide. None of these actually happen over the course of the story, but they get referenced. Stay safe.

She wasn't supposed to be here. The little girl crying for her mother, surrounded by flickering red flames that lit up the shadowed walls, showing glowing eyes behind every corner, staring at this strange new arrival. Her red hair and dress nearly camouflaged her, but the sobs of fear and loneliness drew hordes of demons to crowd around, leaving an empty circle around the child, as if she was something too sacred for even them to touch.

Slowly, one of the shadows moved, the almost abstract form of a demon sliding up to the child. It moved closer, staying behind the child, just out of her vision. The demon stopped, the air quiet and still except for the girl's sobs, and slowly, ever so slowly extended a clawed hand toward her back.

The child turned around and looked straight into the demon's eyes.

The demon froze, expecting the girl to scream or run or do anything but sit there and stare helplessly into his eyes. The child looked up, eyes filled with tears, and said in a shaky voice, "P-please, sir, have you s-seen my mommy?"

Silence. A lifetime of fighting on earth, years in hell, that did nothing to prepare the demon for a small and helpless child standing in front of him.

Then the child took a few quick steps forward and hugged the demon's legs. He heard movement behind every pillar around them, but could pull his eyes from the girl with her face buried into his knees, to the point where he felt rather than heard her sobs.

He noticed an odd feeling. At first he thought it was the tears, but the he noticed it was something about the girl's red dress. The demon took the edge of the dress's sleeve and examined it. His claw went through a gash, one of many that ran up and down the girl, and found a small piece of the fabric that was white. Still white, actually, as he realized with horror that the child's clothes had once been a simply and pure white, only to be soaked and dyed red by the child's own blood.

"I see you've found our new arrival."

The demon looked up to see a woman with horns and a black suit staring down at him. Their leader was an intimidating figure, but there was a note of empathy in her eyes that had been absent from those of her predecessor. "You're the perfect one to take care of her, Thomas."

The words dried up in the demon's mouth. "I- I- you want me to torture a child?"

Satan chuckled. "No, no. The child hasn't done anything wrong. She's not being punished. She's the punishment. Come with me, I'll explain along the way."

Thomas picked up the girl, noticing how small and fragile she seemed, and followed him through a series of corridors. He'd always had a soft spot for children when he was alive, and holding the girl reminded him of nights he spent carrying his little sister to her room after she fell asleep on the couch.

"I suppose you want an explanation."

The demon nodded as Satan opened the door to a small room with a bunk bed inside. "It's been a few thousand years, Thomas. Do you remember how you died?"

Thomas felt himself turn pale as his hand massaged his neck by instinct. He put the child on the lower bunk, where she looked up at him, scared and sad and alone. He didn't like that she had red hair. She still looked far too much like his sister. Thomas supposed she was in heaven. People had said she was going to hell for slitting her own wrists, but Thomas had spent centuries trying to find her, and realized he would never see her again. She was happy now, at least. He had found that bastard everyone had believed instead of her, the man who everyone idolized even when what he'd done to her became clear, the man Thomas had hunted down in the dead of the night and stabbed over and over again, keeping him alive as he screamed for mercy. He hadn't shown mercy to the woman he said he loved. Thomas didn't care when the police found him soaked in blood with a corpse in seventeen pieces. He didn't care when the gavel banged and the judge decided Thomas should die where the man who forced his sister walked free. It was only when they put the noose around his neck that he realized nobody would remember him as anything but a murderer.

"I could never forget," Thomas muttered, not taking his eyes from the child.

Satan sighed. "It isn't fair that you're here, Thomas. You and the man you killed shouldn't be on the same level. That's why you run free through Hell and he's chained up and burning for all of eternity."

"That doesn't explain why she's here."

"You can't see what I see. She would have been like you, wise and just, quick-tempered, sure, but she would do what she had to to serve justice. The child could have been great. But she didn't get that chance. Now all she is is the victim of a horror story, an offering on the altar of her mother's rage."

The child had apparently forgotten her fear and fallen asleep. Thomas looked at her, and in an instant, he understood.

"Life's not fair, Thomas," Satan said as she guided him out of the room. "A conqueror who wanted to fix the world, a man who did what the law refused to, a child who needs a second chance to live, we all ended up here."

"Just because life isn't fair," Thomas muttered, "it doesn't mean we can't be."

"Now you're getting it, Thomas. I need more people like you around here..."


End file.
